1995

Shakespeare Electronic Conference, Vol. 6, No. 0880. Wednesday, 8 November 1995.
(1) From: Stephen Buhler <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Tuesday, 7 Nov 1995 09:51:48 -0600 (CST)
Subj: Re: The Juliet Letters
(2) From: Hardy M. Cook <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Wednesday, November 8, 1995
Subj: *The Juliet Letters*
(1)----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Stephen Buhler <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Tuesday, 7 Nov 1995 09:51:48 -0600 (CST)
Subject: Re: The Juliet Letters
For Milla Riggio: *The Juliet Letters* is also the title of a collaborative
musical work by Elvis Costello and the Brodsky Quartet. The CD was released in
early 1993, I believe, and a video presentation of the song cycle has aired on
a number of PBS affiliates. The songs draw their initial inspiration from the
mail that continues to be sent to "Juliet Capulet" in Verona; word of the
project prompted some journalists to take a closer look at the phenomenon.
Newspaper articles appeared in *The Wall Street Journal*, November 10, 1992,
and *The New York Times*, March 15, 1993. Mr. Costello is no newcomer to such
matters: his first album, *My Aim Is True*, contains the feral (and hilarious)
track "Mystery Dance," which begins
Romeo was restless, he was ready to kill . . . .
As Ricardus Parvus might say: "Pergis pulsare, sed non potes introire."
Stephen M. Buhler
(2)----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Hardy M. Cook <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Wednesday, November 8, 1995
Subject: The Juliet Letters
In the notes accompanying my copy of *The Juliet Letters*, Elvis Costello's
colloboration with the Brodsky Quartet, Costello (aka Declan MacManus) writes,
. . . My wife, Cait, pointed out the tiny newspaper item about a
Veronese academic who had taken on the task of replying to letters
addressed to "Juliet Capulet." This apparently continued for a
number of years, until some gentlemen of the press exposed this
secret correspondence. Quite how he can by these letters in the
first place remains unclear. We can only make a guess as to their
content. . . What was contained in these letters and their replies,
the idea of this correspondence provided our initial inspiration.